I'm stepping into the world of punditry today and offering a list of the weirdos who I think will have the greatest impact in IR in 2013. Suggestions and criticisms are welcome!DBM

WEIRDO #5: Silvio Berlusconi

Is Italy ready for the reign of King Silvio IV? The man who once called the Italian Republic "this shitty country" when he was its acting Prime Minster is poised to win next month's election. If he wins, Europe's #1 chauvinist will have to work with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a woman he once called fat.

Where in the world is Hugo?

WEIRDO #4: Hugo Chavez's Cuban Puppet Masters

After winning his third re-election, Venezeulan President Hugo Chavez had to put off his inauguration due to illness. He's laid up in a Cuban hospital and hasn't been seen in weeks. There are fears that he's on life support or under the influence of the Cuban government. Who's in charge?

Pointing the blame upstairs

WEIRDO #3: U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)

This Oklahoman is my dark horse weirdo for 2013. The international community is calling for real action on climate change, which it cannot achieve without U.S. cooperation. The septuagenerian who first campaigned on "God, Guns, and Gays," has maintained that anthropogenic climate change is impossible because only God can change the environment, and he wouldn't do that to us.

до свидания

WERIDO #2: Vladimir PutinLast year, the Russian President dressed up as a giant bird and led a group of Siberian Cranes on their winter migration. He's salvaged shipwrecks, caressed octopi, and swam with dolphins. He's a judo master and likes to take his shirt off for photo ops. What's next for Putin? I hope he joins the cast of Expendables 3, but we'll just have to wait and see in 2013.

He'd rather be playing Sega

TOP WEIRDO TO WATCH IN 2013Kim Jong UnIs anyone else still sort of stunned that this guy is in charge of the DPRK? He only got the job because his older brother was busted trying to visit Tokyo Disneyland with a fake Dominican passport under the name "Fat Bear." Yet, Jong-Un was the SECOND choice. This Supreme Leader-by-Default recently threatened to target the United States with ICBMs and attack the ROK

You can call Romanian President Traian Basescu a lot of things – corrupt might spring to mind – but one thing you can’t accuse him of being is a bad father. Traian after all was able to orchestrate the election of his daughter Elena Basescu to the European Parliament (EP) in 2009. Elena, cast out of the modeling business due to her advanced age (she’s now 31), won a hefty 4.2% of the vote back in Romania, sending her to the parliament in Strasbourg, where she has cut her teeth on the relevant issues of these times, such as the legalization of marijuana use. She also likes to go nightclubbing in her spare time, which seems to be abundant. All of which brings us to the topic of the European Parliament itself. What does this institution do?

Throughout the eurozone crisis, observers have become aware of two things: 1) The Greeks spend way more than they collect in tax revenue; and 2) Angela Merkel basically runs the EU when it comes to the important matters.

Where has the directly elected, 736-member European Parliament (EP) been during the last two years of the sovereign debt crisis? While the European Council consists of the leaders of the EU's member states, the European Commission acts as the executive body of the EU bureaucracy, in charge of developing proposals for new policies, and the European Council of Ministers makes the final decisions on policies, the EP impotently flails about. This is by design of course. The EP is unable to introduce policies or raise revenues and it shares much of what little power it has with the other bodies. According to John McCormick of Indiana University, the EP splits its business between Strasbourg, Luxembourg, and Brussels. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) meet for full sessions at the parliamentary chamber in Strasbourg only 3-4 days each month (except for August of course, when Europeans suspend all business because the weather becomes too warm for them), and most MEPs don't even attend the full meetings in Strasbourg. What exactly is the point of the EP?

A recent article democratically elected by a French MEP decries the lack of action and adaptability of the EP, arguing that a democratic gap is opening up in the EU. The marginalized status of the EP "should concern democrats: holding a parliamentary debate on the direction of economic policy is a cornerstone of any democratic system." This is folly for at least two reasons. First, there are far too many MEPs, which include some eurosceptics dedicated to constraining the EU (e.g. far-rightist Jean-Marie Le Pen, his daughter Marine Le Pen, and Briton Daniel Hannan) and some who seem to be there quite illegitimately (Elena Basescu). Second, democracy is not exactly the problem, as each minister in the more powerful EU institutions is sent by a EU member state that is democratically elected (albeit, some more democratically elected than others). If the democratically elected leaders of the EU states have a problem with Merkel’s actions, then they can form a coalition to oppose German-led policies. Instead of that though, it looks like members may start lining up to oppose continued Greek participation in the eurozone.